Seth Moulton

U.S. Senate candidates John Deaton and Congressman Seth Moulton participated in a heated interparty primary debate Tuesday night, the first-of-its-kind in Massachusetts.

The Republican and Democrat took shots at each other and their respective parties, as they try to unseat incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, who did not participate.

The debate, which aired on WBZ-TV, kicked off with host Jon Keller asking both candidates what Markey has done “wrong” to not deserve reelection to the Senate.

“Shame on Senator Markey for not being here,” Deaton said, slamming Markey for declining the debate challenge. “Why isn’t he here defending 53 years of being in office? Look, you can see I am not a young man by anyone’s standard. But, his first year in elected office, I was 6. Seth wasn’t even alive, and he’s not here to defend his record because he can’t.”

Moulton took a softer approach, highlighting personal traits like his fatherhood, service in the U.S. Marines, and why he decided to get into politics, saying, “I’m a Marine veteran who has seen the consequences of failed leadership in Washington.”

“A lot of people doing the hard work in America, fighting on the ground, they don’t have a voice. A lot of people in Massachusetts right now feel like they don’t have a voice in our politics. And they need a fighter. They need someone who’s going to change the playbook and bring in a new generation of leadership, and start making Democrats win again. That’s exactly why I’m in this race and it’s why I am here to take on a Republican tonight,” answered Moulton.

Deaton launches attack on Moulton’s Congressional record

Deaton went on the attack early against Moulton, noting that the Democratic congressman, who is ideologically locked with Markey for the most part, has a message that solely focuses on his younger age.

Deaton also slammed Moulton’s record as a congressman, calling out the lack of meaningful legislation the politician has been able to pass on Capitol Hill in his 12 years in office.

“If you look at Seth’s argument, it is simply that he’s younger than Markey. He sees eye to eye on all the policies. That’s not change, that’s promotion dressed up as generational change. It’s about performance, not just age,” said Deaton before going on to slam Moulton’s record as a congressman.

“He has been in office for 12 years and he can’t name one major bill on housing, healthcare, or energy that has helped improve the lives of working families. Other than a 988 line, or a United States Marine Corps commemorative coin. We got 450 years of history, we don’t need a coin. We need policies that change the lives of working families,” Deaton said.

The congressman defended his record, blaming the difficulty in passing legislation in Washington on partisan Republicans he says blindly support President Trump.

“I mean, we do have a lot of difficult colleagues who just support Donald Trump in the Oval Office every single day. It makes it very difficult to find any Republican that you can work with and that’s why I’m not afraid to take them on. That’s why I go on Fox News. That’s why I go into the lion’s den. That’s why I am here debating the Republican here tonight in Massachusetts because we have to be willing to take on those fights,” he said.

Moulton also tried to further separate himself from Markey by reiterating a promise he made at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention to not vote for New York Sen. Chuck Schumer to return as Senate President if Democrats take control of the chamber in the 2026 election.

ICE and the nationwide immigration crackdown

Moulton and Deaton clashed on the use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in carrying out Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown.

Moulton continued his now longstanding attacks on the federal agency and the Trump administration, again calling for the agency to be defunded and to prosecute ICE agents and leadership.

“I was not only the first in this race to call for abolishing and prosecuting ICE, but I went to Minneapolis to be on the ground with those patriotic Americans standing up for immigrants, for families and for our constitutional values,” Moulton said. “I’ve been fighting every single day to hold Trump and the administration accountable and I’ve been very aggressive of going after them and not afraid to have this battle on Will Cain, on Sean Hannity, going on into the Fox’s den to take on MAGA Republicans who enable this behavior.”

Deaton argued against “political absolutisms” used by Moulton, like abolishing and prosecuting ICE, adding that both Republicans and Democrats use hot-button issues like immigration enforcement to generate support and funding for their respective parties.

“They use immigration, abortion, and transgender issues to divide this country. They use it to fundraise. And I mean the far right and the far left use it to divide people up and drive outrage so they can raise money on those three issues,” said Deaton, also noting the shift in attitude toward ICE that Democrats have had in recent years. “Tom Homan, who you want prosecuted, got an award from President Obama in 2015. The highest award you can get for deporting people.”

Deaton also called out Moulton for using immigration and immigrants, specifically taking Marcelo Gomes da Silva to the State of the Union address, as a political prop.

Supporting and opposing President Trump

As expected, Moulton continued to try to attack Deaton by linking him to Trump and predicting that, if elected, Deaton would be a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s agenda.

“Trump is terrible for Massachusetts and we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on that,” said Moulton.

Deaton, who has publicly stated that he has never voted for Trump, worked against this by highlighting what he says is Moulton and Markey’s partisan disdain for Trump.

“You notice how the congressman tries to invoke Trump in me anytime he can. He knows that I didn’t support President Trump, so he’s going to make all these assertions,” Deaton said.

“It shouldn’t matter who the president is. If the president is Gavin Newsom, when I’m in the Senate, I’m going to work with him. It shouldn’t matter who the president is,” he continued. “The criticism of John Deaton is always the same by the extremes. I either don’t love Trump enough or I don’t hate Trump enough. The reality is I don’t give a ‘you-know-what’ about Trump or all your partisan politics.”

The debate also ventured into the topics of energy costs, foreign policy, the ongoing legal battle over the voter-approved legislative audit, and securing federal funding for Massachusetts in Washington, among other topics.